Friday, April 22, 2016

Spending Time with Neil

As the first casting decisions for the upcoming miniseries came out, I decided it was time to reread American Gods and to see what Neil decided to add back in to the Author's Preferred Text edition. I liked this story much more than I did when I first read it almost five years ago. At that time, I had just gotten started with Neil with books like Coraline and Good Omens and didn't really know to expect sex or violence in his stories. But now that I know him and his work better, there was nothing unexpected in the book and I was more able to focus on the details of the story and the mythology. I can't find where but I know I've seen Neil himself say that his fans can be divided into two groups, those who love American Gods and those who hate it. It is definitely a divisive book, dark and brooding with just a touch of redemption at times. This time through I appreciated the crafting of the characters and the vivid sense of each place that Shadow found himself in. Anyway, the casting decisions so far have been stellar and I'm really looking forward to watching the miniseries hopefully late this year.

The Art of Neil Gaiman is a comprehensive review of almost everything Neil has done in comics, novels, film, and children's books by Hayley Campbell, a young family friend who a journalist and the daughter of illustrator Eddie Campbell. She had access to all of the stray papers in his attic and to him and his memories. It was really interesting to read how his career evolved, which things he loved working on and which were more like "work", and what things he would possibly like to write in the future. This is a book for diehard Gaiman fans and it was a fascinating inside look.

7 comments:

I really need to read American Gods! I'm eyeing it for Witch Week 2016 (theme: Made in America). Want to write a guest post? :)The book by Hayley Campbell sounds really interesting too. I don't know if I'd call myself a diehard fan, but I've enjoyed everything I've read by him and I'd love to know more about his life and writing process.

Ooh, that would be a good fit. Yes, I think I would have some things to say about it! I wouldn't even mind a reread in October.The nice thing about the book is that if there is some part of his work that isn't really your thing (for me it's the comics), you can just skim and move on!

ONE of these days I'll properly go back and reread American Gods and see if I can settle on a final opinion about it. I've read it, I think, three times, and felt completely differently about it every time. It's divisive even among Past Me and Present Me!

I can believe that. I was surprised by how okay I was with everything that happens compared to how I felt the first time through. I wonder if we will ever come to a final opinion or if it will always change as we hit different points in our lives.